Restart

Literary fiction

Print length: 256 pagesScholastic Press, 2017

Description

After a serious fall, eighth grader Chase Ambrose wakes with no memory of the person he used to be. As he returns to his life, he learns that his former self was a bully whose actions caused real harm. Chase must rebuild without remembering the choices that shaped his reputation, and he decides he wants to change. The people around him, however, are not sure whether they can trust him or forgive what he did. Restart follows Chase as he confronts the consequences of a past he cannot recall and tries to show, through new choices, that he can become someone different.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Direct

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Earnest · Hopeful · Warm

Structure

Braided

Focus

Character · Relationships

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 1 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

FriendshipGuiltIdentityMemoryRedemptionTransformation

About Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman writes children’s and young adult fiction that ranges from school comedy and farce to adventure and science fiction. His plots often begin with an adolescent dropped into a system that has already classified them as a bully, troublemaker, prodigy, or outsider. Direct, conversational prose and quick dialogue keep the action moving, while shifting viewpoints show how reputations are made and revised within a group. In Schooled, chapters narrated by several characters turn a prank election into a study of status, cruelty, and the influence of a boy who does not recognize the usual social rules. Restart uses amnesia to separate an eighth grader from his history as a bully, then measures change through his choices and other people’s guarded responses. Korman’s comic structures are often built from escalation. I Want to Go Home! sends one homesick camper through increasingly elaborate escape attempts, allowing friendship to develop inside the repeated failures. Even in the thriller plot of Masterminds, divided journeys and uncertain loyalties keep questions of identity tied to fast external action.

Schooled Apple Books

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Scholastic Press
Language: English
ISBN: 9781338053807

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